पान:आंग्ल प्रभा.djvu/27

25 food in the Ramana gathering or open enclosures, while the learned people who refused to take part in the miscellaneous assembly, were invited to the Peishwa's Palace and were honoured with Shawls, and money gifts according to their tested merits. The amount thus came to a lac and a quarter. The remaining three lacs were spent on the Ramana charity. The result of this munificence brought credit to Poona as a city of learning, and this credit it continued to enjoy even after the down-fall of the Peishwas, as long as the old Pathashala was maintained out of the Dakshina grant by Mr Elphinstone and his immediate successors. Times have altered since then, and the Dakshina grant has been utilized for similar purposes which have popularized the study of Sanskrit literature and philosophy among all classes of students. No direct encouragement was given to other than the Sanskrit Pandits, but the Puraniks, and Haridasas were regarded as being equally entitled to special grants with Vaidiks and Shastris, and these were noted for their command and skill in the exposition of the great Maratha poets. Rich Sardars patronized Marathi learning as, for instance, the great Maratha poet Moropant had for his patron the Baramatikar Joshis. As regards the lower classes, the national fondness for Powiadas and Lauranis, contributed to the rise of ballad and love poetry, and some of the most noted composers of this kind of literature derived encouragement from Bajirao II's support. These brief notices of the miscellaneous activities of the State will suffice to recommend the subject to the fuller consideration of those students of our past history, who might be inclined to pursue their re searches further into the old record. Perhaps the most interesting and permanently useful information furnished by these records is that which relates to Superstitions. the social changes attempted by the Maratha Government. It is not to be supposed for a moment that the Brahmin leaders, who were entrusted with the government of the country, had not their full share of the implicit belief in the superstitions of the time. Reference has already been made to the attempted regulations of the practice of exercising evil spirits, whose agency was, it was believed, utilized by evil-doers to ruin their enemies. Belief in Omens and prognostics was common to all classes: It is recorded that a student cut off his tongue, and another Gujarathi devotee cut of his head by "ಬ್ಲ' of offering it to the deity he worshipped, and in both the cases, the events were reported to the Government by the local officials, and large 驚 were spent to purify the temples and ward off the dangers threatened by